Long Island High School Students

Students are pictured above working on a clam flat near Lubec

Beginning in 2008, several students from Long Island, New York have been
coming up to assist in Laurie Connell's research. In the summer of
2010, 3 students - Lauren Joyce, Sam Winestein and Emily Passerelli
pitched in to help with an ongoing project investigating the sensitivity
of softshell clams in the Gulf of Maine to algal toxins (Paralytic
Shellfish Toxins). Copied below are excerpts of their own account of the
experience.

The Clam Crew

"Maine 2010: While we conducted a scientific
experiment of how a red tide affects softshell clams, we managed to
learn a lot and have a ton of fun... By placing five flower pots filled
with clams in the muck in Coffin's Neck, we planned to remove one at
each subsequent low tide, and perform a lateral flow assay on each batch
of clams, testing for the presence of toxins...

We also learned how to sample the water to determine the cell count of Alexandrium present. Alexandrium
is the main toxin associated with an algal bloom (more commonly known
as a red tide) so the aim of this process was to see how harmful/strong
the algal bloom was...

Thank you Laurie and Jenny, we appreciate all that you have done to make this trip a positive and memorable experience for us.